Page 36 of Somnium

CADI

The Friday night crowd was absolute chaos as Cadi slumped against the back of the metal chair, fighting to pull enough air into her lungs after the mad dash across the bar to beat out another group for one of the last remaining tables. Sera slid into the seat across from her, resting her head on her forearms for half a second before looking up.

“Holy shit, I forgot how fast minotaurs are,” she said between breaths, “for a second I thought I was gonna lose an arm when I cut him off.”

Cadi’s brows shot up, her eyes going wide. “Wait … would he have done that?”

Sera pressed her lips together in what Cadi took as silent confirmation, and she made a mental note never to find herself on the wrong side of that particular breed of mythic.

Bodies gathered tightly around them as a steady stream of eager patrons continued to file in from the front door. Even though this was only her second visit to The Crow’s Nest, Cadi could tell this was a much larger turnout than normal. The allure was no doubt due to the band currently setting up their gear on the small stage next to them.

“I didn’t realize these guys were so popular,” Cadi said, raising her voice over the growing noise.

“Oh, they’re not,” Sera replied with a smirk. “Everyone in this place is just a slut for live music.”

Cadi laughed, still not fully used to how easy it was to relax around Sera. The lightness she now felt was a stark contrast to the near constant state of vigilance her body had been in, not just over the past month, but for years. Even when she’d thought things were going well, it was like a part of her knew something her brain hadn’t yet figured out.

As their laughter faded, the jovial light in Sera’s eyes shifted to something steady and serious. “How did things go at the temple?”

Cadi shrugged, picking at the loose corner of a menu. She had officially followed through with her decision to leave the Order, returning her sigil to the head attendant before her shift on Wednesday. Polly had tried everything to change her mind, from offering a different schedule to suggesting she might even be able to find a way to start paying her, but Cadi held firm. She had spun some made-up story about changes at work, opting not to reveal the true reason for her separation. Things were messy enough.

“About how you’d expect. Begged me to stay, offered me everything. I’m just glad it’s done.”

Sera studied her for a moment, then smiled softly with something akin to pride. “Well, we couldn’t be at a more fitting place than this to toast your divorce from the Order,” she said, just as Cadi’s phone screen lit up with a breaking news notification. Cadi tipped the device toward her to read the headline reporting the disappearance of the god governing a small country just south of Sumbria.

“Shit,” she muttered as she scrolled through the article.

“Everything okay?” Sera asked, her voice tinged with concern as she lifted off her chair for a better look at Cadi’s screen. Cadi shook her head, skimming through reports of riots and soaring crime rates in the wake of the disappearance while a strange sense of unease settled in her chest.

“It looks like whatever is happening here is spreading,” she said, looking up to meet Sera’s questioning stare. “Some goddess from a country just south of here has vanished.”

“Lakshmi,” Sera said. Her eyes dropped to the table, and Cadi’s brows pinched at the quiet sadness in her friend’s voice, almost as if she were mourning the loss of a friend.

“Sera?” Cadi pressed, resting her hand against her friend’s soft skin. In an instant, the melancholy in Sera’s features evaporated, replaced by a familiar sly grin as she slipped from beneath Cadi’s touch.

“Now is not the time to talk politics,” she declared as her eyes flicked to the bar over Cadi’s shoulder. “We need drinks, and as penance for leaving me to face every Somnium alone, first round is on you.”

Cadi chuckled and shook her head as she slid from her seat. She supposed buying her friend a drink was the least she could do. “Try not to lose any limbs while I’m gone,” she called over her shoulder.

“Better make it quick, that guy is still hovering.”

Cadi snaked through the press of bodies, her path growing more and more narrow the closer she got to the rail. When she was finally able to squeeze through, she leaned forward over the polished wooden surface, looking first to one end and then the other, a slow, sinking feeling spreading through her when all she found were unfamiliar faces. She knew it shouldn’t matter this much who made their drinks—tonight was about her and Sera—but for some reason, it did.

“What can I get you?”

Cadi looked up into the sparkling green eyes of a cheerful bartender, her mess of thick blonde hair piled high atop her head in a style that looked both chaotic and effortlessly chic. With a jolt of panic, she realized she had left the table without asking Sera what she wanted, and at the rate the crowd was growing, she dreaded the idea of having to leave her spot to go get it now.

“Um … actually I⁠—”

“I got this one, Saoirse.”

Cadi’s heart leaped into her throat at the sound of Elias’s voice, a situation made even worse by the way he leaned forward onto his hands and smiled at her.

“You just get here?” he asked.

Cadi nodded, forcing past the unexpected fluster. “I think I lost a few years off my life trying to get a table, but here we are.”

“Here you are.”